Philippine Agenda: Housing

A roof over one's head, a decent home. This is the dream of more than four million homeless Filipinos. And this is our Agenda this week: Housing. Enter the homes of Filipinos living under the bridge, along the railways and sidewalks, and witness how they live. Philippine Agenda finds that most of these "informal settlers" have come from the provinces, with the hope of having a better life in the city. The result of this migration is a tremendous increase in the number of homeless Filipinos in the cities. The government's response was to create housing projects and relocation sites. This solution, however, has had its own predicaments. For instance, the Cabuyao housing project in Laguna has no clean water, no electricity and the place is located near a dumpsite. To top it off, the site is very far from the city, making it inconvenient for residents to find any form of livelihood. From the government 's point of view, of course, the shortcomings aren't all their fault. They also blame the people who lack discipline, such as those who sell the rights of land awarded to them and those who work with syndicates that fake some documents to sell land. What is the long term plan of the govt to address the complex problems of housing? How can the candidates help? Don't miss Philiipine Agenda: Housing, hosted by Mel Tiangco on Sunday, April 15, 2007 at 7 p.m. on GMA.